ROBERT HEINECKEN (American, b. 1931) NINE SQUAR

ROBERTHEINECKEN(American, b. 1931)NINE SQUARES, 1970unique nine-panel photo-emulsion on canvas, stretched, bolted together and mounted on Formica60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm);each panel signed in ink on the versoPROPERTY FROM THE STRAUSS COLLECTIONPROVENANCE
With Pace / MacGill Gallery, NEW YORKLITERATURE
Friends of Photography in association with LIGHT Gallery, HEINECKEN, 1980, pl. 39ABOUT 1970 I BECAME INTERESTED IN EROTIC ORIENTAL ART, PARTICULARLY JAPANESE. SOME OF THE PICTURES WHICH IMPRESSED ME WERE MADE BY ARTISTS AS SORT OF SEXUAL INSTRUCTION MANUALS, WHERE THE GENITALIA WERE ALWAYS ENLARGED AND ALWAYS TREATED IN DIFFERENT COLOR THAN THE REST OF THE WOODCUT. I ATTEMPTED IN MY WORK DURING THE 1970'S TO DRAW UPON THAT IDEA, ESPECIALLY WHEN I APPLIED DELICATE TINTING ON THE PHOTOGRAPHIC LINEN PIECES. THESE LINEN PIECES WERE CONSTRUCTED OF DIFFERENT NUMBERS OF MODULES BOLTED TOGETHER. THE MATCHING EDGES OF THE MODULES D ID NOT NECESSARILY CONTINUE A CONSISTENT FORM OR IMAGE ONTO THE NEXT MODULE, BUT THE ILLUSION THAT A FORM WAS CONTINUOUS WAS THERE . IN LOOKING AT ONE OF THE MODULAR PIECES (NINE SQUARES, PLATE 39) THE VIEWER WOULD BE VERY CONSCIOUS OF A SURFACE PATTERN WHICH WAS CAUSED BY A VARIETY OF INTERLOCKING EDGES. THESE INTERLOCKING EDGES DESTROY THE SENSE THAT THERE IS A REFERENTIAL PICTURE AT ALL. THE VISUAL DICHOTOMY IN WHICH SURFACE PATTERN AND SPATIAL IMAGE ARE IN CONFLICT AND TENSION IS IMPORTANT.
Robert Heinecken, from a lecture given at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, January 26, 1976, c.f. Friends of Photography in association with LIGHT Gallery, HEINECKEN, 1980, pp. 115-116